Phone Power

I REALLY WANTED to like PhonePower. It has the features I want and is cheap. What's not to like?

The answer to "What's not to like?" is the call QUALITY. I can't tell you how many phone messages we've received that are totally inaudible! We don't even understand who the caller is or the number they left! This is unacceptable! It's just a garbled mess. Again, this is not the caller's cell phone, this is PP. This NEVER happened with ATT.

Also we know these garbled messages are not from cell phones calling from bad areas because often they are from a friend's home phone or from an institutions such as a bank or service company.

We have had numerous instances of making a call to someone and having to call them back again because the quality is not just bad, it's so bad you can't even understand what the other person is saying and/or vice versa.

Now, I hear the pro-PP people saying "It must be your service!"
Well, we have Magic Jack and we never have these issues with Magic Jack! Magic Jack has its own set of problems - like a lack of features - which is why we bought PP.

Also these problems of poor call quality are not when I am downloading music or streaming Netflix. They often happen when my computer is OFF.

Tech Support:

I have to say that the tech support has been very easy to reach and very responsive. HOWEVER that means little when after spending HOURS of my time with them trying to resolve the problem, the phone still does not offer quality calls!

They did test after test, adjustment after adjustment, and still I get LOUSY call quality!

The latest - after I told them I am just going to have to cancel my service - is that they say it's my ISP's problem! Hmmm. Sorry, I don't buy it. I get great upload and download numbers via my ATT DSL and PhonePower's own tests show that my "MOS" # based on the site they sent me to test my connection, is always showing good numbers even according to PP's own techs. Now suddenly it is my ISP's problem? I don't think so. If so, then why is the quality using Magic Jack so much better??? Huh?

So okay, if PhonePower works for you, great, go for it! I'm just here to point out the truth that it doesn't work for everyone, that in our case, it is of unacceptable call quality and the features such as call waiting are hit and miss - sometimes it doesn't work.

All in all I cannot recommend it to others. I am currently looking for a better alternative. If I have to I'll give up on VOIP and go back to ATT or Verizon but I certainly hope I can find a VOIP service that works as well as MagicJack but has at least some of the features of PP. The one feature Magic Jack is missing is automatic forwarding to a cell phone or other phone in case of internet outage. If they had that I'd try MagicJack Plus. But they don't.

I had this service for the full contract and it didn't matter because I didn't do many faxes. When it came to switch services because they jacked the rate so high my extra troubles started. They required I return the device (2 years old-what do they need it for?) Costs more to ship it than it's worth. Fax was very unreliable. My VOIPO faxes always go through.

Their customer service is inflexible. They just keep stating our service agreement states this and that and blah blah blah.

The obvious perk to Phone Power is the price since its much cheaper than a landline alternative as well as many other voip providers. I've had it for a year and half and its been a great service. They've been around since 2005 so I feel pretty good about them not going anywhere. Plenty of features and they throw in a second free line. I won't be switching to anyone else anytime soon.

I got two numbers with them and chose to just have them on the same device. The set up was straight forward enough. I didn’t have to tweak anything and I haven’t had any quality issues. The only thing that would happen was when my crappy Time Warner service would fail then the phone obviously would not be working as well, but at least the failsafe feature kicked in and I got the calls on my cell. I’ve since switched to ATT DSL and it’s been worlds better. Just make sure your internet is solid. Soooo very thankful that they have all US support. I picked the cheapest plan for $15. Once you get the service you have more plan options too when you look in your account page. I use a second line for fax so as the sales rep suggested, I started on the monthly no contract plan and then switched to their metered option ($8/mo, but any outbound calls are 4 cents a min) Its perfect for a fax line or low usage line though.